Agents, Here Are 5 Ways to Level Up Your Income This Year

Many real estate agents set annual goals for their businesses. If you’re one of them and your goal for this year has to do with making more money, you’ve come to the right place.

5 strategies you can follow to level up your income as a real estate agent

Take a moment to look them over so that you can see which strategies might be the best fit for you.

1. Build a base with property management.

To start, if you haven’t delved into the world of property management already, it may be time to do so. As you likely already know, property management involves overseeing the day-to-day operations of rental properties for landlords in exchange for a fee.

Though every property management arrangement may work differently, typically, property managers are paid a fee whenever they place a new tenant in the rental property. Then, they are paid an ongoing monthly fee in exchange for continually managing the property and dealing with things like maintenance issues or other tenant-related issues.

While the fee paid is usually much smaller than the typical commission, many agents find that working in property management gives them a solid base for their incomes. In other words, it provides cash flow that can be depended on a regular basis, unlike commissions, which can be inconsistent.

2. Offer sellers free CMAs.

Once you have your base income settled, the next step to level up your income is to focus on generating more commissions. For many agents, it makes sense to go after sellers first. After all, if someone goes through the trouble of hiring you to sell their house, it’s likely that they will use you to buy as well.

One popular strategy for generating seller leads is to offer homeowners a free comparative market analysis (CMA). The logic behind this move is simple: Once these homeowners find out how much their largest asset is worth, some of them are going to be looking to tap into that equity by selling the home.

Those who are ready to take the next step will see you as a knowledgeable resource. Odds are good that they will decide to list their home with you. From that point, it’s only a matter of time before you have another commission check in hand.

3. Start asking for referrals to level up your income.

Another way to generate more business is by building a strong network of referrals. In real estate, referrals occur when someone has used your services before recommending you to a friend or family member. When nurtured correctly, referrals can be a free source for lead generation.

In this situation, the best-case scenario is that a former client is simply so enamored with your services that they recommend you out of the blue. Unfortunately, those instances are pretty rare. More often, people need prompting to give a referral.

As the agent, that means that you shouldn’t shy away from asking for recommendations or direct referrals. After you finish a transaction, be sure to ask your former clients to leave you a review and to recommend you to any family or friends who are ready to jump into the real estate market.

4. Fine-tune your social media strategy.

Beyond referrals, social media is another great avenue for lead generation. If you don’t already have a comprehensive social media presence, this year may be in the time to build up your following so you can reach your goal and level up your income.

With social media, consistency is key. Most of the time it makes sense to start with one platform and perfect your approach to it before adding another one into the mix. Be sure to educate yourself on the best practices for that social platform and to do your best to post accordingly.

However, regardless of which platform you choose, engagement is likely going to be an important feature. To that end, you’re going to want to do your best to comment on other people’s content, re-share relevant articles, and generally stay engaged with your network on a regular basis.

5. Study under a coach or mentor.

Finally, if you’ve done all of the above and you still aren’t making your income goals, it may be time to find a real estate coach or mentor. Put simply, studying under another professional can help you learn tricks of the trade that you wouldn’t have otherwise. In addition, they can look at the specifics of your business and give you advice on how to improve.

As for how to find a coach or mentor, this is one situation where you may want to ask for recommendations. There’s a good chance that someone in your network has either had a coach before that they have really liked or may be willing to mentor you themselves.

In this case, you never know until you ask and you’ll likely find it’s more than worth it if you want to level up your income.